A small bear gave a Broomfield family a bit of excitement Thursday morning.

Rosemary Floyd said she was home about 9:30 when a neighbor warned her to bring in her cats because a bear had been seen in the neighborhood.

One cat was at the rear of her yard near a wooded area.

“I picked him up and brought him inside when my daughter screamed, ‘There’s a bear in the backyard,’ Floyd recalled.

“I thought she was just kidding.”

But her 9-year-old daughter was serious.

Floyd described the bear as an adolescent male, “kind of scrawny looking.” She said he circled the play set in her yard, then jumped the fence into the neighbor’s yard.

Floyd knew her neighbors were out out town, as she had been tasked with watching their dog in their absence. She also knew that the dog had access from the house to the yard — which meant the bear might be able to get into their house.

“I called 911 right away,” she said.

Police and wildlife officials responded, but by the time they came, the bear was gone. There wasn’t any damage to the dog or the neighbor’s house.

Floyd said she and her husband have lived in the house for 13 years with their four children, but they have never before seen a bear — not even in three trips to Yellowstone National Park.

“We just had raccoons,” Floyd said, “but I never expected a bear.”

Officials warned her that the bear might come back, and that the mother bear is probably nearby.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill told the Broomfield Enterprise that her agency has been getting reports of a young bear in the area since Sunday morning. Sightings were reported Thursday in the 1000 block of Flint Way.

Floyd said her children, ages 12 to 5, now refuse to go outside until the bear is caught.

The owners of Boulder’s Sterling University Peaks apartments, who this summer were cited for illegally subdividing 92 bedrooms in the complex, have reached an agreement to settle the case for $410,000, the city announced Thursday.